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By Brucha Junovitch
Antique furniture of many sorts and types are, and can be, readily found at local garage sales, flea markets, and antique stores. Of these, a person may find some items of less-than-perfect condition that, to many shoppers, bring with them more work and effort than it is worth. Yet, that can be a great find, especially once you know a bit more of how to restore and maintain antiques. Your perfect find might be a Victorian chair in need of a new seat, or an old American trunk that has seen far better days.
The most important thing to maintaining or restoring antique furniture is keeping it clean. The following tips will help you do just that without damaging it:
1. Avoid using any of the popular spray dusting helpers. These tend to leave an unsightly buildup on furniture that’s hard to remove later on. Instead, use a soft cloth to gently wipe away the dust. You can also slightly dampen the cloth with liquid glass cleaner.
2. Avoid using any of the popular oil-based liquid furniture polishers. These leave an oily residue that attracts dust. Lemon oil is one of the worst because it doesn’t sink into the wood like commonly believed but lays on the surface acting as a dust magnet.
3. If there’s oily dirt or grease, such as may get on pieces in a kitchen, remove it with a mild dish detergent and water solution. Work on small areas at a time and dry immediately with a soft cloth.
4. Be extra careful when cleaning any wood that has been gilded. The gilt is usually applied with a water-soluble adhesive which can be removed by detergent cleaners.
5. To clean uneven or carved surfaces, use a soft-bristled brush or your vacuum cleaner with the brush attachment. Be careful not to hit the furniture in any way with the vacuum cleaner, itself.
6. Do not use feather dusters. They move the dust around and can scratch the surface.
7. Before using any cleaner on the surface of your furniture, test an inconspicuous area towards the back first.
8. Always avoid using too much liquid directly on your furniture’s surface.
9. You can get long-term protection by using a good paste wax, such as Minwax. This is a petroleum-based product that comes in both natural and dark shades for light and dark-stained furniture, respectively. The hard surface it produces can be dusted more easily and without the danger of scratching because its smoother. Waxing once or twice a year is sufficient for table tops and chair arms. For less used areas of furniture, such as chair legs and case pieces, wax only every four years.
10. Try not to polish hardware while it’s attached to the furniture. The polish will damage the furniture’s finish. Instead, remove the hardware and polish separately, being sure to rinse or wipe it thoroughly before reattaching it to your pieces. If you can’t remove the hardware from your piece, be sure to mask it from the furniture’s surface to prevent damage. For ornate hardware, use a cotton swab dipped in the detergent solution.
11. Do not polish ormolu, which really isn’t brass but bronze. Instead, wash it with a soft cloth soaked with a mild dish detergent.
12. To remove the musty odor from an antique cabinet or drawers of a chest, spray with Fabreeze and let dry. To keep it fresh, place a new drier sheet inside each cabinet or drawer.
13. If mold or mildew forms on a piece of antique furniture, dampen a soft cloth with a very mild bleach solution (two tablespoons of bleach to a quart of water) and wipe the affected area. Dry immediately with a soft cloth, then wax as stated above.
14. Heat dries out the wood of antique furniture, loosening joints. Keep your house at a comfortable level but not excessively hot in the winter. If you must keep the temperature up, put pans of water around to humidify the air or use a humidifier. The air will be healthier for you, too.

By Brucha Junovitch
For many book collectors, the value of their antique books is more than a specific monetary value. Often these collectors search out antique books to add to their collections based on their love for a particular subject, author or style of literature. For these individuals, the intrinsic worth of an antique book lies in the special meaning the book holds for them.
1. Dust Jackets, Spines and Covers
If there is one single thing that can raise or lower the value of a book, it is the dust jacket. The value of a first edition copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula can diminish by as much as 5% the full value. The price drop of books can often times be solely due to the dust jacket having been destroyed or heavily damaged, either deliberately or due to their fragile nature. If you have one on a good book, treasure it. Also, be sure to protect it with a plastic sleeve.
2. Who is the Author?
A book is more likely to appeal to collectors, and therefore be worth more, if you have actually heard of the book or its author. Additionally, some books by famous authors are better than others. A first edition of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath in good condition is worth far more than say his Travels with Charley.
3. Where was it Published?
The location of publication is an often overlooked but important detail in a list of information about a collection of books. Many titles were published virtually simultaneously in two places; for example, London and New York. Whichever hits the shops first is the “true” first edition while the other becomes the “first American edition” or “first English edition.” The value of a “true” first is typically always greater.
4. Publishing Mistakes
When certain books are evaluated, the number of “mistakes” that occur in the printing process will elevate their value. Thrifty printers will not throw out a batch of sheets simply because there was a mistake on the page. They will correct it and move on. Those first sheets now form an “issue point” that collectors use to determine how early in the printing process the sheet was printed. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has over seven documented (and corrected) mistakes during the printing process. If you have all of them (or many of them) in your copy, it can greatly raise the value of the book. Other copies with a few mistakes are usually much less. These “issue points” can be found in online references to bibliographical information gathered on each book.
5. Missing Pages
Completeness in a book is critical. Even simple pages that have no printing on them, called blanks, are critical to the value of the book. Make certain that there are no loose pages or gatherings of leaves that have come out or are in danger of falling out. One lost page can be devastating to a rare book’s value.
6. Ownership
Look for ownership inscriptions on books. With luck, they will not be on the title-page, as this diminishes value; they should ideally be located on blank pages before the title page. An owner inscription or signature from a member of your own family is always interesting to find, and if he or she was a well-known person, could add to value.
7. Signed Copies
Always look for author signed books. An author signature can mean an increase in value of ten times or more the ordinary value of the book in most cases.
8. Decorative Appeal
Decorative visual appeal can increase a book’s value. A beautifully leather bound book or one with a pictorial gold leaf cover can form the basis for a really eye-catching shelf; these antique books are usually quite collectible. Simple beauty in a cover or binding can raise its value depending upon the complexity and execution of the design.

by Brucha Junovitch
What is a troll doll? Some people refer to them as dolls, others not so. Whatever you may call them, Trolls are immensely popular with collectors and have been since their creation in the 1960s.
Troll dolls were originally created in 1959 by Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam, and were aptly named Dam Trolls, or Gonk Trolls in the Uk. The maker, Dam, could not afford a Christmas gift for his young daughter Lila and instead carved the doll from his imagination. When other children in the Danish town of Gjøl saw the troll doll, they wanted one as well.Dam's company Dam Things began producing the dolls in plastic under the name Good Luck Trolls.
The dolls became popular in several European countries during the early 1960s, shortly before they were introduced in the United States. They became one of the United States' biggest toy fads from the autumn of 1963 through 1965. The originals, also called Dam dolls, were of the highest quality, featuring sheep wool hair and glass eyes. Their sudden popularity, along with an error in the copyright notice of Thomas Dam's original product, resulted in cheaper imitations and knock-offs which flooded the North American shelves.
The Dam company never stopped making the trolls in Europe, where they were always a popular item. In the late 1980s the Dam trolls started making another come back in North America. The E.F.S. Marketing Associates, Inc (located in Farmingdale, New York) was one of the few corporations which were granted permission to import and market the Thomas Dam trolls for re-sale in the United States. These Dam Trolls were marketed under the trade name of Norfin Trolls, with the Adopt A Norfin Troll logo on the tags.
Trolls have gone in and out of production ever since, and they are being produced today as both playthings and as collectibles by such companies as Nyform and even Dam (only in Denmark).
You can find very tiny trolls at only 2 or 3 inches tall, up to very large trolls at 18 inches or so. Any troll at 12 inches or so is considered very large, with trolls over that considered gigantic. Large vintage trolls are generally much rarer than small vintage trolls.
Nearly all trolls are made out of hard vinyl, although they have been made out of nearly every other material you can imagine including ceramics, rubber, porcelain and even hemp. Trolls generally have jointed arms and heads (although some have un-jointed arms) and plastic or glass eyes, with a little sprout of hair on their heads.
One thing to remember, though, not all trolls are as valuable today. They were produced in the hundreds of millions, and only mint and rare trolls bring high prices. A collection of trolls, however, can fit in nicely with either a collection of dolls or a collection of toys.

By Brucha Junovitch
American furniture is a mix of various styles that resulted from the blending of furniture brought to America by it many immigrant populations over the years. The earliest style brought to its shores came with the Pilgrims in 1620 and most were crafted in the style now known as the Jacobean style. Of course, this was little more than the most meager of possessions at first – oh, perhaps an armchair, a small table, a desk.
Jacobean furniture came from the English Renaissance architecture begun in the Elizabethan age. Early Jacobean furniture was somewhat inward-looking, not fully embracing exotic influences. A similar style brought to the Americas was the William and Mary style, also known as early Baroque in museum circles, of antique furniture dates from about 1690 through the mid-1720s. It is named for the king and queen who reigned together over England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689-1694.
Jacobean and William and Mary furniture tended to be heavy, almost ponderous. It was made in both England and this country of solid wood, especially oak, although walnut became quite fashionable for William and Mary pieces. Simplicity of structure, straight lines, and squat proportions were typical, and legs were firmly braced with stretchers.
Carving was preferred to inlay and veneer for decoration. Many a Jacobean piece appeared weighted down by its carving. Typical additions were panels, as on the doors of chests, carved in geometric designs. A variation was strap-work consisting of thin, flat pieces of wood. The backs of chairs were often of solid wood and carved. However, seats might be upholstered with leather or woven pads in England. In this country, rush seats were more common.
Early American beds were monstrous, although how much of this effect was due to the bedstead and how much to the hangings is a debated question. Never before or since were beds so high as between 1600 and 1660. Hangings were important, and could be drawn to cover the four sides of a bed. Their purpose was to shut out the cold. Truckle, or trundle beds, which were low and on wheels so they could be pushed under a bedstead, were made for children and servants. Daybeds were quite another thing and were the forerunners of reclining couches.
Tables were often long in size and length. The trestle, which is the oldest style of table and goes back to Medieval times, began to have some competition. The gate-leg table, a style still popular today, was made first during the Jacobean period. Cricket tables with three legs were also new to the period.
Stools were even more common than chairs in early American furniture. They were made in great numbers and doubled as seats and tables. They were about the height of a chair seat.
Side chairs and armchairs, which were really side chairs with wood arms attached, offered little choice when it came to comfort. In addition to solid-backs, there were slat-back chairs, which had three or more wide and usually shaped wooden pieces horizontally across the back. The banister-back chair had fairly wide vertical slats surmounted by a crest or top rail. Some of these top rails, as well as the banisters, were more richly carved than others.
The latter part of the seventeenth century, technically known as the Restoration period in England, followed by William and Mary, brought lighter and more adaptable furniture. Special turnings, scrolled and more elaborate stretchers, became fashionable. Decorations were later expanded to include lacquer, marquetry, and some inlay.

When the first English settlers came to America, England was just emerging from the Middle Ages. Furniture of the time was heavy and cumbersome and constructed chiefly of oak. By 1700, furniture had become gradually more plentiful and new forms appeared to fill domestic needs. The Queen Anne style offered homeowners lighter, graceful, more comfortable furniture, and the first "period" pieces were born.

Political events, economics (including prosperity at home and trade with other countries), and the freedom to travel from one country to another influenced the styles of furniture as well as the amount considered essential in a home. Every so often, also, a great furniture designer who introduced new and different-looking pieces established a style and set a period. Between 1700 and 1800, five distinctly different furniture styles prevailed in England and America. The names attached to these styles or periods were sometimes those of the reigning monarchs, sometimes of a furniture designer. The Queen Anne style was, of course, named after Queen Anne of England. Though the style had become popular in England by 1705, it took another 20 years for it to become popular in America.

Queen Anne furniture was lighter in appearance and much more graceful looking than the ponderous 17th-century pieces. Furniture remained functional, however, and also became comfortable. Lines were simple, with emphasis on the curvilinear. The single most important decoration of Queen Anne furniture was the carved cockle or scallop shell. Often, one large shell was carved on the slant top of a desk or on the front of a highboy, lowboy, or chest. A smaller shell sometimes was carved on the knee of a leg and-with or without carving on the legs-to top the splat of a chair or daybed. The shell motif emphasized the curvilinear element. On some pieces, this carved motif is more clearly recognizable as a fan or a sunburst.

Cabinetmakers replaced the straight, turned legs on chairs, tables, and cupboards, with more graceful, curving ones called cabriole; that is, the leg had an out-curved knee and an incurved ankle. Feet were likely to be the simple pad or Dutch foot, occasionally the drake foot, which was carved with three toes, or the Spanish foot, which curved gracefully and showed rectangular lines of carving. Stretchers were omitted or else not particularly noticeable. The kettle or bombe base, which swelled outward at sides and front, appeared on cupboards and some other case pieces.

Oak was still widely used in England but walnut became the preferred wood in both England and America. After walnut, cherry and maple rather than oak were the choices in this country. Regardless of the wood, a small amount of Queen Anne furniture was painted white and gilded.

The drop-leaf table, either oval, round, or rectangular, replaced the trestle table for dining. Dropping the leaves, of course, saved space when they weren't in use. Rectangular tables with marble tops were made for dining rooms because, so far, no one had thought of making a sideboard.

Card or gaming tables were another Queen Anne innovation that continued to be popular for more than a century. By the mid-18th century in America, it wasn't uncommon for a household to own a half-dozen or more fine examples of card tables. Each one was well made of selected hardwood and was handsome, for it was part of the furniture of the room at all times. No comparison is possible between this style of table, which has become a classic, and the collapsible bridge (card) table so common today.

All of these card tables, now certainly antiques, had tops consisting of two leaves that were hinged so that one could be folded on top of the other or be supported against a wall when the table was not in use. Of the four or occasionally five legs, one was movable to support the folding leaf when the table was opened to full size. The square table with a top 36 to 38 inches when opened flat usually had rounded corners to hold candlesticks to light the gaming. Some tables also had four oval saucers, one at each player's left, for coins. Occasionally there was a drawer under the top.

Hello from MI,
Antique Dan said I should write a blog, and as I'm new to all this new fangled teck stuff, you can blame him. Read Dan Bruns blog this morning about his adventure in opening his new antique mall, I can relate. We hope to open ours soon and have the grand opening the 4th of July weekend. I tripped over a dog and fell down some steps on our stairs last night, right into a marble top comode that sits on the landing and knocked off a pitcher (it was OK), landed on my shoulder with the torn rotor cuff, and I'm quite stiff this morning, so I can relate to Dan. Good luck Dan, sounds like you are doing OK with with your place.
We had tornadoes yesterday afternoon. Was working at the mall in Mason when it hit. My wife Kathi and I got down by the cash regester counter during the worst part. The warning bells went off about 20 minetes before the storm hit, so all the customes had left and the outdoors
booths were closed up. Lots of trees and power lines down, had to detoure twice to git out of town. On the hwyway back to Eaton Rapids, an ambulance passed us, so we thought we would just follow it back to town. Wrong, a semi had been blown over, the road was closed, had to turn around agin, go a differnt way. Police didn't want people driving thru town because of down trees and power lines, so I hope our store is still there! Several homes were destored between Eaton Rapids and Charlotte. but our farm came thru it OK. Hate to see old trees go down.
Our sales last week were way down, thought that with the hoiday, we would be gitting more tourest thur, but with gas prices, people might not have money for fuel and spending.
This pc I'm useing is the pits, old and slow. Our good one is in the shop being cleaned up.
Till next time,
Dennis

Original vs. Reproduction
So you found an old toy; but is it real or is it fake?Here are a few tips of the trade to help you decide if your new found treasure is the real deal.Castings in reproductions are rougher in texture because a course-grade sand is used in the molding process.The paint quality on reproduction toys show none of the aging process that adds patina and crazing of the paint.Another tip is to look at the seams where the parts of the toy piece together.The seams on original toys fit closer together as opposed to a reproduction which will have significant gaps.Also, since cast iron shrinks during manufacturing, reproductions are smaller in size than the original. See a photo of an original Uncle Sam Bank and a reproduction bank under Acorn Hill Antiques. It is amzing to see the difference.

Being a dealer at the Denver Brass Armadillo and an avid collector, I recently had the opportunity to visit Tucson, Arizona. Naturally I wanted to check out a few of the antique shops there. Making the rounds of several shops, it was only natural to notice the subtle, and not so subtle, differences between the Denver Brass Armadillo and the shops in Tucson. While none of the Tucson shops are as large as the Brass, several shops are centrally located to one another and that helps cut down on driving from one to the next as well as finding parking. However, parking is an issue as there are very, very limited spaces available. Many of the shops appear to be sole owner/dealer shops or shops with a very limited number of dealers. I visited four so called “antique malls” of which the largest had approximately 30,000 square feet and a reported 200 dealers. The others were quite a bit smaller. None approached the size of the Denver Brass Armadillo.
While the Tucson shops have ample inventory of glassware, dishes, jewelry, Native American and Western memorabilia, and other smaller collectibles and antiques, the supply and selection of antique furniture was very limited with almost no Victorian or Early American pieces. Most furniture was Southwest design or mid-Twentieth Century style. The limited furniture antiques may be explained by the fact most of the shops have only limited floor space and there just isn’t space for furniture.
All of the shops have some locked display cases similar to the Brass, but gaining access to a case is not as convenient as the Brass’s individually locked cases. To inspect and closely examine an item in a case in the Tucson shops, it is necessary to go to the front counter and request a staff member to unlock the case. This is very inconvenient and time consuming, not only for the shopper, but also for the shop’s staff. On several occasions I had to wait 5 or more minutes before someone could locate a key to the case and come and unlock a specific case.
Looking for antique dolls? There is a doll museum at Christine’s Antiques which houses hundreds of dolls. It’s quite impressive with dolls of all designs, ages, compositions, size, and value. If you are a doll collector, or just have an interest in dolls, it is worth a trip to Christine’s Antiques on Speedway Boulevard in Tucson.
If you have the opportunity to visit Tucson, be sure to check out the antiques. You will definitely meet some really nice and friendly folks!!!